The Mexican actor — who voiced Papá in ‘Coco’ — spent this year’s Día de Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico with Expedia
Despite growing up in Mexico and starring in the beloved Disney Pixar film Coco, Jaime Camil just got the full Día de Muertos experience this year.
“Día de Muertos is like going to Carnival in Brazil… or going to Pamplona to the bull run in Spain… it’s a big one, it’s a big holiday,” Camil, 51, who voiced Papá in the 2017 animated hit, tells PEOPLE. “It’s a beautiful holiday for you to remember [the people you’ve lost] and celebrate their lives.
“This is my first authentic Dia de Muertos celebration,” the actor, who recently partnered with Expedia to create a “Travel Shop” curating his favorite stays in Mexico, continues. “In my family, we were very Americanized. So we did Halloween, the trick or treating, and we did have an ofrenda (Spanish for offering) in our house, but I didn’t quite understand what it was, the meaning. I was very, very young.”
When the opportunity to be a part of Coco came along, he developed a deeper understanding of the significance behind the holiday.
“When you see Coco, that’s how it is. It’s not an exaggeration. And it’s not like a caricature of when you go to the graveyards, they’re beautiful,” he explains. “They’re beautiful and super well decorated, and people dance and they remember their loved ones and they keep the memory alive.”
Camil says his two children love the movie, but they “couldn’t care less” that he plays Papá in the film.
“I want to think that they get excited. But I’m a dad, so I’m the un-coolest person in the universe for them,” he says of his kids Elena, 13, and Jaime, 10, whom he shares with his wife, Mexican model Heidi Balvanera.
“But my daughter, sometime she comes to my work and I can see a little glimmer of, ‘That’s my dad. I’m proud,'” he adds.
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty
Jaime Camil with wife Heidi Balvanera and kids Elena and Jaime
For fans looking for a “live-action experience” of the film, Camil suggests they travel to Oaxaca or Morelia in Mexico: “You can’t go wrong,” he says.
Through his partnership with Expedia, Camil got the full experience in Oaxaca which offers Day of the Dead tours, parades and lively processions called muerteadas.
Related: ‘Coco’ ‘s Jaime Camil Talks About His “Super Hot Wife” and Family Life
His list of favorite stays, however, span the country and are worth visiting any time of year.
“When Expedia told me they wanted me to do curated experiences and hotels you recommend, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s very good,’ because when you travel, you usually ask friends: ‘Hey, have you been to this place?'”
“I travel a lot with my family, so I wanted to make my curated shops family oriented,” he continues. “That doesn’t mean that the hotels that I recommend are only for families, but they’re also very family friendly.”
Camil’s Travel Shop is available to view now with his best recommendations in Mexico.
